Deconstruction of hospitality: Kant and Derrida

Abstract

This article examines Jacques Derrida’s reading of the third article of Kant’s Toward Perpetual Peace. In addition to elucidating the interpretive strategy Derrida employs in his Séminaire: Hospitalité, the article explores the etymological complexities of hospes—a term that, as interpreted through the lens of Benveniste, intricately links hospitality with both hosting and hostility. This inquiry leads to a broader analysis of the interrelations among ipseity, power, and hospitality, as well as the conceptual ties between hospitality and translation. Finally, the article seeks to deconstruct the apparent opposition between conditional (Kantian) and unconditional (Derridean) forms of hospitality by invoking Derrida’s earlier distinction between law and justice, as articulated in Force of Law: The Mystical Foundation of Authority.